River Club golfer sinks two holes-in-one

RIVER CLUB — She had never set foot on a golf course, let alone swung a golf club; but from the moment she stepped into the pro shop 20 years ago, River Club resident Peggy Kunkle was hooked.

It wasn’t the Taylor Made clubs or the Callaway golf balls that captured Kunkle’s attention. Rather, it was the matching shirts and skirts that drew Kunkle’s eye.

“There were all of these beautiful clothes,” Kunkle said. “Everything matched.”

Kunkle approached her late husband, Ted, and told him she wanted to come back and buy an outfit. However, her husband wasn’t too keen on the idea.

“He said ‘You can’t buy those because you aren’t a golfer,’” Kunkle said. “So I said, ‘Fine, I’m going to be a golfer.’”

From that point on, Kunkle borrowed a set of golf clubs and went out to the driving range every day to practice, hitting thousands of golf balls before she even went out on the course.

Kunkle’s years of hard work paid off Nov. 22, when she hit an ace on the 92-yard No. 8 of the River Club Golf Course. Kunkle followed up her hole-in-one with a second ace four days later. On Nov. 25, Kunkle used her 6-iron to record an ace on the 125-yard No. 15 of River Club Golf Course.

The two aces were the 10th and 11th of her career. Following each of her hole-in-ones, Kunkle went up to the bar and paid the bar tab — a tradition at the River Club.

“That’s been expensive for me over the years,” Kunkle said. “There are days when that bar is full. Luckily, on Tuesday and Friday that week, there weren’t that many people in there, so they took it easy on me.”

Growing up, Kunkle was anything but athletic. She often got excused from gym class and wanted nothing to do with sports. But that all changed when she traveled to Bryan, Ohio, with her husband for a reunion.

Rather than touring a new school, with which she had no interest, with the ladies, Kunkle asked her husband if she could go on the golf outing. Before then, Kunkle had never stepped foot on a course.

“All I could see was a day outside,” Kunkle said.

Kunkle’s husband, who was a scratch golfer, agreed to let her tag along, and it was during their visit to the country club in Bryan that Kunkle found the pro shop that changed her life.

“I told my husband it would have been cheaper to just let me buy an outfit,” she said. “He was my mentor and my teacher. I had my first hole-in-one before him, and he had been playing for 40 years.

“Finally before he died, he had two holes-in-one,” Kunkle said. “I’ve been golfing for 20 years, and I’ve had 11 holes-in-one and he had two, poor guy.”

Kunkle hit her first hole-in-one in 1991 during her first year playing.

“That one made me cry,” Kunkle said. “I was so excited. I just bawled like a baby.

“You hit the ball and it’s going in the right direction, but after that, it’s divine intervention,” Kunkle said. “You never plan on it. It was just luck for me.”

Kunkle continued to play even after her husband gave up the sport to pursue other interests.

“It was a shock to me that I could even do it,” Kunkle said. “The fact that I could make contact with the ball amazed me; and over the years, I’ve found that I’m very competitive. I really enjoy the competition and the drive to get better.”

Kunkle’s husband died in August 2008 from complications from pancreatitis. At that time, Kunkle began to lose some of her enthusiasm for the sport. But in the past year, she’s regained her drive. Today, Kunkle plays five days a week. She also plans on taking more lessons from teaching professional Jacques Panet-Raymond to help lengthen her game.

“I feel like I have a little guardian angel sitting here helping the balls go in the hole,” Kunkle said.

Contact Jen Blanco at [email protected].